Parents! What punishment have you dished out....

Nancy - don't you love big families? I have 8 brothers and sisters, and my youngest brother and sister are 11 months apart. My youngest sister also was an aunt when she was born. And then I only had 1 son!

How cool, Nancy! God bless Aunt Frances! How is she doing? Funny - you had the same distribution - 10 girls and five boys! Same thing - the eldest were gone when my mom was growing up. I met all my aunts and uncles at least once or twice when I was young but there were two who I rarely saw. It is cool to have a large family. Sad part is that when they age, deaths come in bunches. We've been going through that. No regrets though!

Nancy, priceless photo! And every single one is good looking, too!

Yeah, what a great shot Nancy!!

Thanks to all for all the nice comments.

amethystsm- I love that pic. I remember when Mom first showed it to me. I was amazed! I mean... MY mother?!??! She was a KID?!??! LOL!
We have lots of family pics. My Aunt Dorothy (she's in the front next to my grandmother) became the official family photographer. She did her own developing too so we all have literally hundreds of photos from the 40's - 60's.

debilu- My father's side was large as well- not as large as mom... he was the oldest of 6.
Of all my mother's siblings, only one had more than 2 children. That was the one I never met. She died at age 37 - leaving 6 children. All the others had 0 - 2. That includes my mother. She always wanted 2 girls & that's what she has.

victor - that's funny about how we share the 10/5 split. I saw all of them all the time - especially around the holidays. Thanksgiving would have nearly 50 people crammed around 3 tables. Talk about NOISY!!
Aunt Frances is probably the healthiest one of them all. She complains now and then.. "Why am I still here?!?!?!" It's because she misses her sister (Aunt Edith who died in 2004 -age 97), and her husband who died one month later.

I don't see all my cousins all the time. I'm closest to 2 of them. They, my sister & I were always together. They're the closest things I have to brothers.

BTW - Aunt Frances does not look her age! This shot was taken last Sept. Her birthday is 3 days after mine. We had a joint party celebrating her 98th and my 56th Bday.

Wow! You're right about that! She looks great! What a wonderful family you've been blessed with. Enjoy every moment with them.

What Victor said: "Wow!" I hope I look that good when I'm 97! Nancy, I drive down to Yonkers all the time. My son's dad lives there and so does a good friend of mine whom I visit often. We should get together sometime!

Harper

Wow Nancy! What a lovely family you have! I come from a big family...but not that big. But what I remember the most were the Holiday's, they were noisy but sooooo much fun!!

Not sure if I mentioned this up top (too lazy to check) but I have 42 first cousins on my mother's side. I think there must have been a period of more than forty years before there was no one pregnant in the family.

I did a count - I have 20 first cousins on my mother's side. 12 boys/8 girls.
When I was younger, I thought 15 of them were aunts/uncles since they were older and in some cases, close to my mother's age, and 2 older than she was.
There was a period when everyone was having boys. I was the first girl to show up after 14 years. Then my sister, 3 years later.
By that time, there was a whole new generation popping out.

Father's side - 12 first cousins, 3, boys/9 girls.

Sofonisba - Where in Yonkers? I'm in the NW section - about 2 miles from the Hastings line.

Victor & Sofonisba - Have you ever gone to the Wildflower/Native Plant Sale in Valhalla? It's held by the Native Plant Center. When I stopped at my local Wild Bird Center I picked up the info.
There's a pre-order form available so you can "reserve" plants. (They sell out quickly)
The actual sale is April 26. If you pre-order, you can schedule a pick-up time during that week.
http://www.nativeplantcenter.org/

Nancy

Never have. Thanks for the link - I will check it out. Same with my family - my mom has nieces who are older than her! I just had a first cousin die recently who was almost 25 years older than me.

They have a nice selection of plants. They are native to the area. This is good for me because I don't have room to bring a lot indoors. I store some things (callas, cannas & dahlias) in my mother's basement. Everything in my yard is container grown so I like to grow plants that can survive year round in their pots.

On the day of the sale there are usually some additional plants besides what is listed on the pre-order list.

One word of warning... If you go on the sail day & it's raining... make sure you bring boxes/plastic for the car. The sale site (and the plants) will be muddy.

Nancy

Thanks Nancy!

Okay - check out this old family photo. It's my grandfather, his brothers and my great-grandfather. Needless to say, this is the Italian (my dad's) side of the family. The photo looks like it's right out of Godfather 2!! My grandfather is the one in the white shirt and suspenders.

Victor, I know what you mean about pictures looking like something other than they are. GF2...too funny!

These are my 6 brothers....notice the one on the far right without the mustache? He is the Lt. Colo. in the Marines, when he looked at this photo he started cracking up. He said "Look, there is me with all my Iranian brothers!!"
Now every time I look at this picture I just want to play with photosmart and put turbans on all their heads!

Funny!

Celeste, the brother on the bottom left has that Johnny Depp look to him.

The middle one on the bottom really does look middle eastern. Guess that's why he's in the middle.

Thanks, Victor! Now I have the Godfather Theme running through my head.

Pixie - Was there a moustache sale or something?

Ha ha - at least it's a catchy tune!

Sue- he was for a long time the odd one...black sheep of the family. He just like to travel and try new things but always forgot to tell us(his family) he was leaving. He started this when he got back from the service, he has P.T.S.D.

Victor, thats my oldest brother, Clark who is now 65. He is the one I wanted to put the turbin on the most!!

Nancy I have no idea about the mustaches, it just so happened they all had one that summer except the Marine.

Sue, I was thinking he looked a little like Harvey Keitel in that photo.

Great family shots Victor and Celeste!

Oh, and did I mention my Dad watched too much Sesame Street or something?
There names follow the alphabet.
Alan
Brian
Clark
Doug
Everett
Francis
Although not born in that order.

Funny Celeste! Why were you another 'C'? Thanks Harp.

My Mom got to name the girls, Dad got the boys....Mom got screwed! Since she only got to name one, she gave me the same intials as her, C.A.B. (and do not yell "taxi!")

What's your middle name?

Ummm, my parents were french....no middle name. My first name is Celeste Ann.

Is that a French policy?

It's the only sensible solution I could come up with for why they didn't give me a middle name. I was raised Catholic so I have another name to throw in when I feel it necessary. hee hee

A lot of French people have 2 names for a first name like Jean-Paul or Jean-Marc etc....

My dad is very French but I am glad I just have one name to spell out and it is one syllable LOL

Celeste when you were young did your parents call you Ti-Celeste? My dad and all his brothers and sisters got ti put in front of their name....

I vaguely remembered that until you mentioned it! We call all our Aunts and Uncles 'Tante' and 'Manonc' not sure if I spelled these right, little rusty on the french is an understatement!

Remembering my H.S. French...

Tante = Aunt
Oncle = Uncle

Maybe MANONC was short for saying Mon Oncle - which would be My Uncle.

Nancy

I think you got it Nancy! I had three years in HS.

Dawn - "Ti" is often used in Spanish speaking households.

Tia = Aunt
Tio = Uncle

It would be shortened to Ti (pronounced TEE) - sometimes TiTi (TEETEE)

So I'd be "Titi Nancy"

Manonc is exactly what I call my Uncle....wasn't sure if anyone else did. Both sets of grandparents were Mémère & Pépère.